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Ptsd In Slaughterhouse Five

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Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental disease that develops in those who have experienced a scary or dangerous event and it affects an estimated 6.8% of Americans in their lifetime (National Institute of Mental Health, “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”). Post-traumatic stress disorder is also abbreviated as “PTSD.” Slaughterhouse-Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, follows Billy Pilgrim, a World War II soldier, on his adventures through both the war and after the war. Pilgrim believes that he is visited by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore and abducted by them. He also thinks that he is able to “time travel” to different events throughout his own life. Due to his condition of thinking that he is able to time travel, Pilgrim can be said to have PTSD. …show more content…

For instance, war veterans sometimes cannot view fireworks as it induces fear in them due to the sound of the explosions seeming like gun shots. In Slaughterhouse-Five, author Kurt Vonnegut, a former soldier in World War II, explores the concept of post-traumatic stress disorder by identifying the underlying causes, highlighting the impacts and symptoms of PTSD, and evaluating coping mechanisms. During a time period where post-traumatic stress disorder was still incredibly controversial, Vonnegut utilized the character of Billy Pilgrim to identify the causes of PTSD. The mental disorder can have many causes as explained in the article “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,” in which the National Institute of Mental Health states, “Not everyone with PTSD has been through a dangerous event. Some experiences, like the sudden unexpected death of a loved one, can also cause PTSD” (National Institute of Mental Health, “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder”). PTSD, like many other diseases, can arise from a number of conditions, making it hard to pinpoint where it stems from. Vonnegut takes into account that PTSD can come from a number of sources, providing a plethora of possible explanations for Billy’s mental capacity throughout the novel. For instance, early in Billy’s life, Billy, along

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Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), as defined by MAYO clinic, is a mental health problem in which a person has difficulty recovering after experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event. Many times, that inability to recover results in significant changes in a person. In the novel Enders Game by Orson Scott Card, a young genius, Ender Wiggin is given an opportunity to leave his family for education and training at a military academy. There, he undergoes grooming to eventually become a general in a human versus alien war.

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Clearly, Leper has a symptom of PTSD called re-enactment while Gene is visiting him: “Diverse types of traumatic exposure result in a variety of symptoms, even within the categories of re- experiencing, re- enactment…”(Nair 40). Re-enactment is when a person has a flashback of their traumatic experience. They remember every second of their ordeal in vivid detail. It is often involuntary and is triggered by a memory. When a person has a flashback, they do not realize that the memory is not happening in real time.

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Title: Slaughterhouse-Five Author: Kurt Vonnegut Thesis: Throughout KVs SF, he describes in matter of fact way the psychological impact/effects of the devastation of war and death upon Billy Pilgrim and how he handles it. Through the exploration of Billy Pilgrim’s detached and indifferent thoughts, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five illustrates the coping mechanisms of a World War II veteran with post traumatic stress disorder.

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In Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut, the character Billy Pilgrim claims to be “unstuck” in time. Having survived through being a prisoner of war and the destruction of Dresden during World War II, has been a prisoner of the war, it was very obvious that Pilgrim’s mental state was extremely unstable. It may be that Pilgrim, having effects of being a prisoner of war, and having been witness to destruction of Dresden, suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) , which caused him to go over events over and having flash backs. In order to comprehend how much war can affect a veteran negatively , Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five talks about how the massacre event during the war , the destruction of Dresden, PTSD along with coping

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Throughout the novel, the series of Macarb conditions in the novel, Billy survived it all with valuable lessons to help him cope and move on a fresh in the new world where “everything was beautiful and nothing hurt”. (Vonnegut 122). According to Merriam-Webster Learners Dictionary. Com Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a mental condition that can affect a person who has had a very shocking or difficult experience such as fighting in a war and that is usually characterized by depression and anxiety. The first symptom of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder that Billy exhibits is continuous flashback of the traumatic events in his life.

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